Page 122 of Dean

“He can’t just break and enter,” I murmur as I move to the open front door.

“I think you’ll realize he can,” Avery says with a laugh as I march up the front steps and see Lex moving around the house. His eyes flit this way and that, scoping my place out. I swear, he may be a recommendation from Ben, but he’s shady as fuck.

“Hey, what the hell?” I murmur, and Lex turns toward us with a grin.

“Hello, sexy men. How are you? You have a lovely home.”

“You just let yourself in?” I grumble, and Lex shrugs.

“Yes. You were late.”

“We never set a time. Ben just said you’d make us a priority.”

“Well, in my head I had a time set because I need to get over to the ladies’ home to spend time with them, so I’m on a time crunch.”

My eyebrows rise in surprise. He’s so suave, so effortlessly charming, that I find myself relaxing slightly.

“Now, where do you want these cameras?” Lex asks, and I know that pressing the matter of him entering my house without permission is a moot point.

He does what he wants, and he is doing me a favor…

“Yeah, I want them outside,” I say. “Front and back.”

“We have to catch the bad guy,” Avery says, and Lex bobs his head.

“We’ll definitely do that with these babies.” He pulls the bag of cameras up and presses a kiss on it. “And listen, I’ll throw in a few extra, just for fun.”

I don’t know what that means, but I don’t have time to ask because a moment later, I hear the beeping of a truck moving down my driveway. The trees I ordered without Avery knowing are here. A surprise of sorts. For my boyfriend.

“Fuck,” I murmur, and Avery moves to the window, clapping his hands and looking delighted.

“Oh my god. Are the trees here already? Those are my trees!”

“Yeah,” I say, and he looks so fucking happy that everything with Lex is forgotten. That man can break into my house anytime, it seems. Avery pulls the front door open and rushes outside. “Oh my god! They’re gorgeous. Look at them!”

I glance at the red cherry and white-trunk birch in the back of the truck and then turn back to Avery, watching as he beams. Yeah, it’s fucking gorgeous.

He is.

“What?” he asks, and I move toward him, pulling him in for a long kiss. He sags into me, and I hear Lex whistle lewdly. But he goes ignored as I sweep my tongue into his mouth. He tastes like maple syrup, like cinnamon and sugar.

Everything sweet and good in this world.

I only pull away from him when a man walks up to us with a question about where we want the trees to go.

“This one is going to decide,” I say, and Avery rolls his eyes, his lips pink and wet.

“I mean, yes, if you were serious about me staying. But I don’t want to overstep.”

I pull him into me once more, ignoring the impatient man next to me.

“I mean it. I don’t want you to leave. I want you to step all over my life.”

“Okay, I mean, I already painted your wall and you know, hung some pictures…”

“You have, and I want more. So plant the fucking trees where you want them.”

I hear the crunch of footsteps and see another man approach, a dolly in his hand. “Where do you want these?” Avery’s eyes move to the stacked pots, and he gasps.

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